Susan and John: how 4 rental properties stayed in the family
Susan and her husband John had been building their rental portfolio in South Louisiana for over a decade. Four properties — solid, well-maintained doubles and singles that were supposed to be their retirement nest egg.
Then the last few renewals hit. Between soaring premiums and separate wind deductibles, insurance wasn’t just a line item anymore — it was eating up nearly all of their monthly cash flow. Every rent check was going right back out the door.
Susan called our office one afternoon, completely frustrated: “Tim, we love our tenants and we love these properties, but between taxes and insurance, we’re barely breaking even. If rates jump again this year, John and I are going to have to sell them all.”
The post-Ida advantage most landlords miss
When Hurricane Ida blew through South Louisiana in 2021, Susan and John had to put brand-new roofs on all four properties. It was a stressful year, but that investment created an opportunity their insurance company never told them about.
Many Louisiana insurers offer meaningful wind and hail discounts for roofs replaced after 2020, and newer roofs open the door to carriers that won’t write older properties. Susan and John were still on old, high-rate policies that never gave them credit for those new roofs.
Four headaches turned into real savings
Instead of treating each house on its own, we reviewed all four properties together:
1. Applied full roof credits. We verified the 2021 roof dates on all four addresses to capture every discount available.
2. Re-shopped with multiple companies. Because we’re independent, we matched each property with the company offering the best rate for that ZIP code.
3. Protected their rental income. We made sure each policy included loss of rent coverage, so if a covered storm leaves a unit uninhabitable, the income doesn’t dry up.
Cash flow restored
When we finished, Susan and John were saving thousands of dollars a year across their properties. Most importantly, they didn’t have to put “For Sale” signs in their front yards.
John stopped by our Evans Road office a few weeks later just to say thanks: “You didn’t just save us money on insurance, Tim. You saved our retirement plan. We’re holding onto every one of those houses.”